Modern aircraft display systems are capable of displaying a considerable amount of information such as aircraft position, attitude, navigation, and terrain information. Most such displays additionally allow a flight plan to be displayed from different views, such as a perspective view or primary flight display, a vertical situation display, or a lateral situation display, that can be displayed individually or simultaneously. The vertical situation display and the lateral situation display are two-dimensional views of the aircraft flight plan, and may include, for example, an aircraft symbol, waypoint symbols, line segments that interconnect the waypoint symbols, and/or range rings. These views may also include various map features including, for example, weather information, terrain information, political boundaries, and navigation aids.
The vertical situation display and lateral situation display may also provide a user interface that allows the pilot or co-pilot of the aircraft to monitor and/or change the flight plan and/or path. For example, the pilot or co-pilot may maneuver a cursor to select a waypoint symbol on one of these views, resulting in the creation of a pop-up menu. The pilot or co-pilot can then interact with various menus to view the details of, or modify, an existing waypoint. Further, the pilot or co-pilot is able to utilize the user interface to create additional waypoints. For example, the pilot or co-pilot might interact with a selectable menu on the second image to provide the information necessary (e.g., latitude, longitude, and altitude) to set the waypoint. A new waypoint symbol would then appear in the appropriate location on the second image. Alternatively, the pilot or co-pilot might maneuver the cursor to the desired location of the vertical situation display or the lateral situation display and provide an input (e.g., click a button) resulting in the generation of a pop-up menu. The pilot or co-pilot may then interact with various pop-up menus to create the new waypoint.
Although the present method for creating, or modifying, a waypoint using the second image is effective, it does suffer certain drawbacks. For instance, because the user interface is menu-based, the pilot or co-pilot must divert attention away from other important flight procedures so that he or she may interact with the menus and dialog boxes when adding, or modifying, a waypoint. In addition, because each of these views provides only a two-dimensional view of the flight plan, they cannot provide the pilot or co-pilot with a visual representation of the position (e.g., latitude, longitude, and altitude) of a waypoint with respect to position of the aircraft, the other waypoints, or other aspects of the flight path for aircraft.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus for setting a waypoint for an aircraft without requiring the pilot or co-pilot to interact with a menu-based user interface. In addition, it is also desirable to provide a method for generating a new waypoint for an aircraft that provides the pilot or co-pilot with a visual representation of the relative position of the new waypoint. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention